


flour, marble, lye

by glacecherie



Category: Men's Hockey RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Bakery, Friends With Benefits, M/M, Pastries as a love language, Pining
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-11-13
Updated: 2019-11-13
Packaged: 2021-01-30 03:15:59
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21421285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glacecherie/pseuds/glacecherie
Summary: Willy wonders if Zach knows that when he goes in every Friday and buys a non-diet plan pastry and coffee that sometimes he slow times choosing a pastry just to stare. How he'll look over the counter and Zach will be kneading something, and he has very nice forearms, and Willy is very easy and gone.(He thinks about telling him sometimes. Shaking him by the shoulders and saying hi, you make me very, very stupid and insane, and would you like to bang and/or marry me?)[new chapters from chapter three onwards!]
Relationships: Zach Hyman/William Nylander
Comments: 7
Kudos: 72





	1. over the threshold

Technically, Willy falls in love entirely by accident. Because the guy works in a bakery, Mitch keeps making a joke about him being in_ loaf_, and it means Willy has to punch his arm, and that makes Mitch whine at him, and the whole thing is a hot mess.

He wonders if Zach knows that when he goes in every Friday and buys a non-diet plan pastry and coffee that he makes Willy go a little bit dumb. That sometimes he slow times choosing a pastry because he'll look over the counter and Zach will be kneading something and he has very nice forearms.

He thinks about telling him sometimes. Shaking him by the shoulders and saying _hi, you make me very very stupid and insane and would you like to bang and or marry me?_

But like. Zach is really nice and talks to him about things like current events, a new cake idea he had, and here, he totally saved Willy a sample. So he doesn't want to scare him away.

"Wait, wait, he's _SWEET_ on the baker guy, get it?" Mitch says to nobody in particular, so Willy throws a cushion at him. It misses. Mitch cackles. 

Willy would like to scream.

-

"What do you think, then?" Zach says, nudging the three sketches toward him. There's a lull, and Kas - eternally smug he introduced them - is browsing the menu, pretending not to be snooping. He totally did this on purpose with his evil Finnish powers or something, convincing Zach to show Willy the most romantic shit.

He eyes the three wedding cake designs. They're all very beautiful. Elegant, rustic looking buttercream icing that shows peeks of the cake itself through it, fresh flowers on the first two tiers and a model of two women underneath a sheet on top.

"Why the tent thingy?" He says, immediately realising how dumb he sounds.

"Jewish wedding." Zach says, pointing to the tassels on the edge of the sheet that Willy hadn't noticed. "It's can be a proper canopy, or a prayer shawl. You say your vows under it. They're not from my synagogue but it's nice to do it. They're having a bunch of problems, though." 

Willy's 6th sense for gossip pings.

"Oh?"

Zach leans in to whisper, and if it makes the hairs on the back of Willy's neck stand on end, so what.

"Yeah. They've been trying for a kid, right? And they weren't sure when they'd conceive. She didn't even realise until long after she'd ordered her suit. But she figured hey, I'm not showing yet. Wedding's in a couple of weeks. Nothing is likely to change between now and then."

"Oh no." Willy says. He's unreasonable invested in Ruth and Johanna. He doesn't even know them and he's cheerleading them.

"Big surprise, that baby is suddenly showing, and the jacket doesn't do up, and she hasn't told her family yet."

"Oh _no_." He repeats. He makes a note to tell his mama. She loves drama that she's not involved in.

Zach pulls back when an alarm goes off, and Willy, a fool, follows him to the counter and watches him knock back the dough of a batch of brown sugar and pecan twists.

"It's cute. They're really in love." Zach murmurs, vaguely longing. Willy stares at his hands. His hands are nice. _Goddamn_. "The short one, Johanna, cried when I said the cake topper could be given a tiny baby bump if they wanted."

"You think you want that? At some point?" Willy asks, and Kas chokes as he grabs his drink. Willy wants to choke _himself_, because he's no idea where that came from either.

Zach smiles softly, cheeks a little pinker, and glances away. Will wants to bite his shoulders. Also marry him or like, just get railed by him. Lovingly. _Ah, shit._

"Maybe." He says.

-

Mitch and his girlfriend celebrate their one year anniversary by ordering takeout, inviting Willy and Kas over, and hotboxing the living room.

"This is such a shitty party." Willy says, passing the joint along to Mitch.

Mitch flips him off easily.

"We didn't want a big party." He says, then exhales. He's laid back on her chest and when she absently rubs his knuckles against Mitch's breastbone he looks like he's going to purr. _Ew_. "We just wanted to chill and have a couple of days off before the roadie for me and before finals kill her. Also go fuck yourself, you're pining over a handsome baker because you're an idiot. You can't tell us shit."

Someone snorts.

"Yeah, well, at least I'm not -" he scrambles for a chirp, but his mind blanks, and -

"At least you're not shotgunning when you think the rest of us can't see?" Kas offers, and Willy takes back any ideas about him being an evil Finnish bastard. Well, not the Finnish part, obviously. That's regrettably terminal.

_Still_.

"Hah!" He cackles at them, and fistbumps Kas for being great.

Mitch shrugs.

"Guess we don't have to be secretive about it now, huh?" She smirks at Mitch, and that perks him up, and if they start making out, Willy will ask Kas to Ol' Yeller him in the yard.

-

Kas refuses to Ol 'Yeller him out in the yard.


	2. cinnamon and ice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach reaches one of his arms over Willy's and guides his hand to dip his fingers into the bowl of ice to his right. It's freezing, naturally, but the bits where Zach's fingers hold are still warm.
> 
> That's flirting. He's fairly sure. Maybe.

Willy begins having Hot Baker related meltdowns approximately two weeks after he meets him. Like, sit in his car and scream silently meltdowns. Since meeting Hot Baker Guy, he learns five things about him:

• He's called Zach

• He's 4 years older than Willy

• He saves "the best one" for him out of Friday's specialty batch

• He's not usually working Saturday, hence Willy adjusting the day he visits to Friday.

• He has really nice arms in a really wholesome way, and Willy wants to sink his teeth into them very unwholesomely

The third point is the one that makes willy lose his shit. He saves the best one for him. From something he's gone to great effort to make perfectly. He saves Willy delicious perfect things, and their fingers touch when he passes the little ribbon tied box over, and is Kas aware, is he _really_ aware of how Willy won't survive this??

Kas looks at him impassively, and steals the last wine braised peach from the top of the custard tart before Willy can stop him.

"Yeah dude, you save the notes he sticks to the lid. You've hung the ribbons on your mirror. It's getting a bit like you're a stalker. "

Willy twitches.

"Wait, why have you been going in my room?"

"Honestly? If it's a really good dessert you take it upstairs and don't share, and I'm more than happy to steal it back."

"Steal back? Steal _back_? It was never yours to take in the first place!"

He knows his voice is climbing higher because like, _meltdown_ or whatever.

Kas looks like he cares the least a man can care.

"Don't worry, I'll save you the ribbon."

He dodges the balled up napkin Willy hurls at him.

-

There's a marble worktop behind the display cabinet, the kind that couples on property shows rave about, but it's usually covered in flour or various bowls or utensils. Zach is also usually working at it, and on a slow day, Willy will lean over the counter and stare and talk to him.

The guy on the cash desk that day looks a little like - in another world - he's a wholesome young boy from a children's book, all big eyes and dimples. In this world, "Travis" is side-eyeing him like he's transparent or something and keeps getting yelled at for not wearing his name tag.

He leans close when Zach ducks into the storeroom and Willy jumps because he was distracted by the shape of Zach's shoulders. He really is going through it.

"You know, he'll be here for like an hour after we close, right?"

He honest to god _winks_.

"Uh? I'm just here for food!" He replies, both for too quickly, and far too cheery.

Travis looks at him like he's extremely stupid.

"I'll be going in about thirty minutes."

"Have a safe journey home." Willy says, and they stare at each other like how cats weighing each other up do. He half expects Travis to very slowly smack him on the head.

The moment passes, because Travis says "_jesus fucking christ_", and that's the end of that.

-

Sometimes _maybe_ Willy stays, _maybe_ he lingers, _maybe_ he looks at the window steaming up and the neat little rows of heart shaped pretzels Zach is making like it's not big deal, and imagines them married with kids. It's _fine_, mostly.

It is absolutely _fine_ when Zach flips the open sign to closed, invites him behind the counter, and talks to him about his life and stuff. He's okay, and isn't yelling on the inside.

"What's that for?" He asks, nodding to the bowl of liquid the pretzels are being dipped in.

"Lye, makes the crust better. Burns if it gets on your skin, though."

He gestures to a small pink mark on his arm.

"Oh, ouch. Wait, is it safe to eat?"

Zach snorts at him. Regretably, he's endeared.

"No, I've been feeding you poison all these weeks." He laughs, and Willy isn't blushing, he's not. It's just this is very domestic and out of reach and he's dumb over it.

He draws mindless patterns in the flour on the counter, and listens when Zach explains that half of them will be maple pecan and the other half cinnamon sugar, but he's being experimenting with flavour ratios. His stomach grumbles, though not audibly.

He does, however, spot one of the long rolls of dough left out from the batch.

"Hey, you missed one."

Zach's head is tilted down and Willy thinks his eyelashes are real nice (?!) and he's not sure if he's gone all pink or its just the heat from the ovens.

"Yeah, it's for you."

Willy looks puzzled, and Zach peels the gloves he'd been using to dip the pretzels and shuffles around the counter. It's very small. Or maybe it just seems smaller because Zach is stood behind him where he's perched on a stool, and he's moved Willy's hand aside to redistribute the flour he'd been idly drawing in.

"For you to do one. I figured it'd be pretty boring just sitting there watching me."

"You could never be boring." Willy says too quickly, and stares intently ahead until the moment of his stupidity passes. Kas better ready himself for another wild ride of Willy being romantically incompetent.

"Thanks," Zach replies easily, and throws the dough in front of him. "Okay, make it into a u shape. Wait, are your hands clean?"

"You made me wash them before I came around here." He says, and does as he's told.

"Perfect, now bring the two ends together and twist them over each other."

He flushes at the tiny, _single word_ of praise, and immediately wants to strangle himself with the stupid fucking pretzel string.

Because he's distracted, he idles with the dough too long, and it sticks when he tries to peel it up from the marble. When he tries again it starts to stretch unevenly, and now he's overthinking about how such a tiny mistake is spiralling, and it's a metaphor for his life and everything is _awful_ and -

Zach reaches one of his arms over Willy's and guides his hand to dip his fingers into the bowl of ice to his right. It's freezing, naturally, but the bits where Zach's fingers hold are still warm.

That's flirting. He's fairly sure. Maybe.

"Okay, try again." Zach says, normally, when Willy dries off. Like Willy isn't thinking about how he has nice hands. He's pretty sure he does the pretzel right this time out of his crippling to be praised and liked. He'll ask Kas about it later.

_Hey dude, if your girl nearly pressed against your back tenderly, and held you by the wrist and fingers, and guided you to make a sweet treat, would you think she wanted to bang you? Kas? Why are you saying you want to drown yourself? Can I have your girlfriend's number and ask her? Why are you locking your door?_

"Not bad for a first try." Zach murmurs, and uses a palette knife to put into onto a tray. "Your hands are just warm, not ideal for baking."

Willy gnaws his lip to stop the dumb smile, and he's not entirely sure he's imagining it when Zach's eyes flick to his mouth. _Huh_.

He can almost feel the phantom warmth against his back and side.

"I need to go." Zach says, nudging him back to sitting out of the way as he clears up. Willy is briefly consumed by the need to like, yank Zach close and pull him down to kiss, and wrap his legs around him.

"I need to head home. Do you need a ride?"

"Huh?"

"Do you need a ride? Didn't you walk here? The snow's gotten worse."

Willy has 0 control over his brain, because he has a cheesy teen girl movie image in his head of Zach reaching and squeezing his thigh as they wait at a stop light.

He takes a deep breath and pins on his best "_I'm totally not crazy about you"_ smile.

"Sure." He says.


	3. warm sheets

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Zach kisses along his cheekbone, then finally to his mouth, and Willy rises on his toes so he can wrap his arms around Zach's neck and haul him down even though their height difference is negligible. He's so eager that he feels like he should be embarrassed.
> 
> They should probably actually go up.
> 
> "Please -" Willy says again, hearing how fragile it is, resting their foreheads together briefly, and Zach nods.

Around about 5 beers deep into a night spent finding things to binge on netflix and grinning stupidly at his phone, Willy has a light bulb moment.

"Shit. I think I got feelings."

Kas looks at him, with a kind of clarity only being drunk and very disappointed can bring.

"You made me pause for _that_?" He says, completely monotone.

"Maybe because this is a big deal?"

"It isn't, you're just like, _scared_ or something. Have you tried not being so scared, or?"

Willy levels him with a look of his own.

"Thanks so much for the advice, doctor." He clutches Kas' hand for dramatic effect. "It means the world to me. Please let me name my firstborn after you."

"Thinking of kids already? _Oof_."

Willy wants to undo ever becoming his friend.

"You know that's not what I meant! I'm being normal about this, you're the one going all armchair psych on me."

"Mhmm, yeah." He takes a long pull of his beer, "I think your phone just went off."

Willy snatches it up, and Kas snickers, because it didn't go off at all and now he's going to be drunk and smug all evening.

-

They have a roadie and Willy is too sad that he has to miss seeing Zach for their usual after work catch up. Not that he can say that, because he now gets pestered about it being a date, or pestered about whether he can secure leftover treats. It depends on who's the one asking, but either way, he'll be pestered. 

It's not ideal. 

One night when he can't sleep, he calls Zach at ass o'clock without thinking.

It's only then that he fully gets he's in his feelings because Zach doesn't complain, just tells him about his plans for the week. The late autumn stoned fruit pastries he's going to try, how his neighbour is still playing some kind of techno music in the middle of the night again, an anniversary cake that's making him want to tear his hair out.

"Don't do that, it's good hair." He says, and immediately wants to rewind to a point where he didn't blurt that.

Zach laughs, though. It's a really good sound. 

Maybe it's anticlimatic to _Realise Things_ then, but whatever. It's fine. Zach has the kind of voice that makes it not quite so jarring to snap out of his panicking.

"Tell me more about the pastries." He yawns, snuggling up, because he just wants to talk until he's not so weirdly anxious about this away game, and also to subtly influence Zach's baking as a bonus. 

"So, same pastry as the one on the apple tarts, but this time with windfall fruits. Plums, I was thinking. Stewed and sieved, spread over the pastry."

"How do you even know how to do all this?" He asks, and he can imagine Zach shrugging, and how that always makes his shoulders look really good.

"I was one of the oldest kids in my family growing up, and there were a lot of bake sales I helped with."

"And now you're inventing legendary sweet treats for the masses."

Zach pauses, hesitant.

"Not for the masses. This one was just for you."

"_Oh_." Willy murmurs, grinning to himself, kind of wanting to twiddle his hair around his fingers and preen. "That's even better."

He just wants something with apples and bramble fruit. It's the entire reason he called. That's his excuse, anyway. 

-

The lucky streak they'd been on breaks absolutely crushingly, and when Willy gets boarded he bends three fingers all the way back in a pretty gnarly fashion. They're just sprained - technically - but the nagging twinging of it is making him more and more antsy. Even with the painkiller he'd been given, he can't settle. 

Maybe that means he's spiralling. Whatever. He contains it well enough that nobody bothers him when he skulks away to the taxi rank without saying goodbye, and gives the address of the only place he can think of right now.

-  
  
"Just make it stop, _jesus christ_. I don't want to think after tonight, I don't want to go to a bar, I don't want to go _home_, it feels too big and -"

Willy chews his lip and makes a frustrated noise.

"Plenty of space to be sad in, in all fairness. There's not a lot of room to be sad here. It's a loft above a bakery." Zach interrupts, deadpan, and Willy laughs, tearful.

He looks like he isn't sure what to say. Is there anything to say that would make it even slightly better? Willy can't think of anything.

Zach pushes his hair off his face and he leans in to the touch like a cat. He wants him to kiss the bruise he somehow got on his jaw, and by a stroke of luck he does, free hand unclawing Willy's own from his sweater. Like he's saying that he isn't going to go anywhere, it's _okay_.

Willy lets out a noise both relieved and desperate. He can't even force himself to shut up.

"_Please_, just make it - less difficult."

Zach kisses along his cheekbone, then finally to his mouth, and Willy rises on his toes so he can wrap his arms around Zach's neck and haul him down even though their height difference is negligible. He's so eager that he feels like he should be embarrassed.

They should probably actually go up.

"_Please_ -" Willy says again, hearing how fragile it is, resting their foreheads together briefly, and Zach nods.

"Okay. Okay, come on."

-

Zach fucks him spooned up behind him, staying so close, touching his thighs and waist and low down on his stomach. He doesn't jerk him off until he's nearly crying from it, and he's fucking him slow and deep and - Willy is nearly completely out of his head. It feels like being looked after, and he sobs when he he comes.

Zach holds onto him. 

-

Willy wakes first. It's barely light, deep, orangey sunrise creeping in slower with winter. Toronto never feels quiet. Here nearly does, even with the staticy sound of people passing by in the slush a storey below. 

Zach isn't spooning him, but he is curled towards him, tucked up tight beneath the quilt, radiating heat. It's such a soft moment, and he doesn't want a snapshot of it stuck fast in his head, but. Here he is.

He rolls towards him, and slow as anything, lays a hand on his arm, like he's checking if he's real. 

He should head out, he should sneak off and be sensible and ghost Zach. He should pretend he didn't have a super embarrassing breakdown over feeling not good enough and trapped, then never come here again. Should, until Zach groans at him for fidgeting, says something under his breath, and wraps a big arm around him. 

"_Sleep_." He manages to discern, and Zach kisses between his shoulder blades. Holding onto him again.

Then resumes snoring softly. 

If Willy kept a teen girl romcom diary, the entry for today would read "Oh, fuck", and it isn't even 6am. 

(He drifts back to sleep himself in what feels like seconds, determined to be very sensible about things later on.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Being sensible about feelings? In my fic? It's even less likely than you think.

**Author's Note:**

> Turns out the bakery au has plot and a fic of its own now! Oops!


End file.
